Another ugly face of Sangai Festival: VIP passes issued to autorickshaws, school vans
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, November 29 2015: There is certainly a major goof-up in issuing VIP vehicle passes for the ongoing Manipur Sangai Festival.

During a random observation conducted by The Sangai Express at the venue of the tourism festival, even autorickshaws and school vans were seen entering the restricted area of the festival venue by showing VIP vehicle passes.

Now the moot question is who issued these passes, which must be exclusively meant for VIPs, to passenger autorickshaws and school vans.

Security personnel who are put on duty at Palace gate told this reporter that they were helpless as these vehicles posses VIP passes.

They were compelled to give a free passage to these vehicles after thorough checking, police said.

Another ugly face of Sangai Festival VIP passes issued to autorickshaws, school vans

Another problem that give a big headache to the security personnel is that the registration numbers are not printed/written on the vehicle passes.

That is why there is strong possibility of lending one's vehicle pass to others, they said.

The police also said that the authority concerned has not provided them the list of the vehicles to which VIP vehicle passes have been issued.

On the other hand, many youth of around 20-25 years were also seen entering the festival area showing VIP vehicle passes while many other vehicles jam-packed with around 10 occupants were also seen showing VIP vehicle passes.

The Tourism Department issued three types of vehicle passes for the festival - red coloured passes to VVIPs, green coloured passes to VIPs and blue coloured passes to stall owners.

All the security escort vehicles of VVIPs and VIPs are not allowed to enter beyond Palace gate if they do not possess vehicle passes.

The security arrangement was however so strict that even the vehicles which have VIP vehicle pass must go through security checking at Palace gate.

A visitor said that the traffic jam created by the vehicles having VVIP and VIP passes at Palace gate gives lots of inconvenience to visitors standing in long queues to get inside the festival venue.

The VVIP/VIP pass issue has come after some eating stalls were found using subsidised/domestic LPG at the festival venue.